Viacom

Maybe it was in celebration of International Happiness Day, or maybe it was just coincidence, but this week saw three high-profile copyright cases all resolved through out-of-court settlements.

First, upstart toy company GoldieBloxsettled with Beastie Boys over the unauthorized use of a version of the Beasties song “Girls” with altered lyrics in an online ad video. As we reported in December, the case was framed initially as a question of whether the video qualified as fair use, but it also raised issues of trademark infringement, false endorsement, unfair competition, and misappropriation of publicity rights. In the end, the Beasties got what The Hollywood Reporteroriginally reported that they were after: a donation by Goldieblox to a charity of the Beasties’ choice, based on a percentage of revenue, and a more substantive apology:

Ever find yourself in a situation where a hot court decision drops but you have precious little time for a proper analysis? That was exactly the case this week, when your steadfast FMC’ers found ourselves with an appeals ruling in Viacom’s high-profile case against YouTube. The decision just dropped yesterday, but dammit, we like to be first in analysis! (OK, maybe second; Public Knowledge is pretty quick on the draw.)

The following is the gist of the case and the April 5, 2012 decision by the 2nd Circuit Court of appeals. read more

Today’s post was co-authored by Shane Wagman, a 2009 Google Policy Fellow at Future of Music Coalition. She is currently a law student at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a Howard M. Squadron Media Fellow / legal intern at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The views and opinions in this post are wholly her own and do not reflect the views of any other organization.read more